The Indians will release Johnny Damon and Jeremy Accardo today, MLB.com's Jordan Bastian reports (on Twitter). The club has one more day to make a move involving Derek Lowe.
The Indians removed Damon from their roster six days ago, after he posted a .222/.281/.329 batting line with four home runs in 224 plate appearances as a left fielder and designated hitter. The club designated Accardo for assignment five days ago after he posted a 4.58 ERA with 7.1 K/9 and 4.1 BB/9 in 26 appearances.
Damon hasn't heard if any contenders are interested in signing him, but he wants to keep playing, Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe reports (Twitter links). The Red Sox will pass on Lowe for now, Cafardo reports.
Speaking of washed up players.. Abreu and Damon at the same time.. Only Abreu realizes it and took the demotion and Damon thinks he can still get those 200 hits..
Shame they don’t count Independent league, cause that’s probably the only place Damon will ever get them and only a team looking for a PH (and desperately looking for fans in the seat with a “name”) will sign this washed up has been.
Abreu at least can still get on base, so he would make a great pinch hitter. Damon, I totally agree with you on, though I thought he was washed up last year and he still put up respectable numbers.
I disagree about Damon. other than the horrid start this season he was actually very good with the stick, much better than Abreu was. Damon can still get on base but Abreu has far more diminished skill sets. Given a choice I do think Damon is the better option and the tribe blew this one as he was a help far more than a hinder.
They are both pretty much toast, but abreu actually started off the opposite of Damon with his LAD tenure.. He was hot and then went cold, where Damon was cold and then warmed up a little, but damon never did hit a lot.
Someone better than both right now and is now in the Dbacks system, has been DFA’d 3x already this season, has speed and hitting better than both Damon and Abreu, plus plays all 3OF positions better than all3?? Scotty Pods..
That was my point on the Abreu thread. Boston DFA’d him 2x and he cleared, the pretty sure Arizona did as well and he accepted to remove him from their roster and he accepted a AAA job.. Pods hit VERY well in 80PA for Boston and stole 6 bases, plus played good defense in the OF when they were hit by injuries.
There comes a time when these older veterans, like Abreu and Damon just need to..Go away..
Pods didn’t accept. He refused the assignment and was released. I can’t recall hearing anything about him since then.
Wow.. Thought he took the Dbacks.. Thx for that :-)
he should be able to help a PO team as just a PR and defensive replacement in crunch time, or at least when rosters expand.. A superior version of Joey “Gaspipe” Gaithrite.
@johnsilver
LOL ! kind of harsh on Damon, no? Methinks you haven’t forgiven him for defecting to the ‘Evil Empire’
Since both these guys are available for the pro-rated major league minimum, maybe someone will take a flyer on them if there’s an injury. With service time being a major consideration these days, bringing up someone from the minors and starting their clock running might be less appealing. But they both look pretty done as really useful players
Wonder if a team like the O’s would take a shot on Damon. Thome is probably out for the year…and they are currently using Endy Chavez (.503 OPS), Lew Ford (.420 OPS), and Nate McLouth (.434 OPS on the year) in LF. Damon would actually be an upgrade. Could also avoid his defense by moving Davis back to the OF.
Know they are promoting Machado which could allow them to shuffle things around (Davis to the OF, Betemit and Reynolds at 1B/DH), but still think Damon could fit there. Doesn’t have the power of Thome but for stretches this year was a solid bat. Had a very solid September last year too for the Rays when they had that great run to the playoffs (.380 OBP).
I still think it is awesome that Lew Ford made it back to the majors.
Marlins should sign Damon.
Why would the Giants not go after Accardo?!